meantime, an international peace envoy for syria who just wrapped up fresh talks with president bashar assad said that the two had discussed taking, quote, many steps to help end the violence. ♪ gregg: back in washington, d.c., anxiety is rising over a plan to avert spending cuts and big tax hikes by january 1. the growing number of lawmakers say they are deeply skeptical that a deal can be reached in the next seven days, and we're beginning to hear new reports suggesting the president may have a smaller deal in mind, one that will keep tax rates where they are and, again, put off the issue of spending cuts. chris stirewalt, fox news digital politics editor, host of "power play" on foxnews.com, chris, good to see you. i was reading your recent column, i want to put a portion of it up on the screen, and i'll quote you: gregg: explain what you mean. >> a cheerful christmas thought, gregg. [laughter] merry, merry. no, when we look back at 2012, if you take a minute and look back at the arc of this year in politics, what you saw was the smallest -- it was the most expensive, but it was the sma